BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
This movie would have been amazing and super successful if made twenty years ago. We take two of the biggest action stars of all time and put them in a movie where they play old men, naturally, who are locked into a seemingly futuristic secret super prison. It’s said to be inescapable and is ran by really bad guys. The two old guys are Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger and the bad prison guy is Jim Caviezel. The rest of the cast is made up of the likes of 50 Cent, Vinnie Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Amy Ryan. The movie sounds silly and the movie IS silly. The plot is hokey and straight of the 80’s and early 90’s. That’s kind of the charm though. If you grew up on over the top action movies with crazy plots then you’ll appreciate what’s going on here. Sly plays a guy who runs a company that tests the security of prisons. He pisses someone off and ends up in this crazy prison. He somehow finds himself stuck there. He ends up meeting a friend in the prison played by Arnold. They buddy up and take it to “the man” with their shenanigans and antics. They work the system and devise a genius way to get out and take down the bad guys. In most cases that would be a “spoiler”, but what would anyone expect by this movie? Outside of the name value of the stars alone, the “how-they-do-that” and “holy-shit-they-did-that” aspects of a movie like this is what draws people in. They pull it off. I expected to see a really unenjoyable movie that I could trash and tell people to avoid. It’s not though. It’s a fun movie. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and there is a fun tongue-in-cheek action movie that’s creative, witty, action-packed and silly in juuuust the right way. The movie made good money, was fun to watch and was a worthy popcorn movie. This is the kind of movie you want to get a few drinks in you, a tub of buttery popcorn and no expectations. B-
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